They Knew Rice Would Heat Up

After Glen Rice struggled through a cold-shooting exhibition season, the coaching staff made a point to get Rice going early against Utah in the season opener, Coach Phil Jackson said Wednesday, and the staff hopes the streak will continue through the rest of the season.

Rice made his first two three-pointers, and finished with 28 points, making five of his six three-point tries.

“It’s like I said to my assistant coach Tex Winter, you know a hangnail sometimes will keep a shooter from having a good game,” Jackson said before the game.

“And once they get on a roll, sometimes it’s infectious. And last night, that was the case.

“He got going early and he stayed there. You know, he didn’t make a shot against Utah [in the exhibition finale] on Thursday. We know he’s a better player than that, and we kind of gave him some indication where we were going to get him some shots early in the game and we had to have some scoring from him.”

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Guard Derek Fisher, who made a crucial three-pointer in the late going against the Jazz, said the coaches have encouraged him to be more aggressive on offense than he has in the past.

“I think it’s a combination of having the confidence in myself to take the shot but also Phil and the other coaches on the staff have explained that they want me look for that shot,” said Fisher, whose 5.9 scoring average last season was a career high. “They feel I’m capable of knocking those shots down. . . .

“When you think about backcourt scoring, without Kobe [Bryant, out a few more weeks with a broken hand], a lot of responsibility falls onto me and also Ron [Harper]. I accept that responsibility.”

Bryant, meanwhile, is scheduled to have his broken right hand reexamined today, and the result could be the removal of his hard cast.

Bryant, who along with the other injured Lakers didn’t accompany the team to Salt Lake City, said he is hoping to sit out only 10 more games, which would put him back Nov. 24 at home against Utah.

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The power-forward search continues. But is Dennis Rodman a serious candidate?

“As you guys know, I’ve been throwing out idle threats of bringing Dennis Rodman back,” Jackson said. “I’ll fess up that they are more idle . . . than they are threats.”

But the Lakers do need a big man, Jackson repeated.

“The reality is that we know that we can get by on certain occasions, but not every night,” Jackson said.

“You want to go out every single night and know that this guy’s going to do the job for us, at some level we’ve got to find a way to find rebounding, clog up the lane, get us eight or 10 points and 12 rebounds from that position that gives us the support that we have to have . . .

“Whether it comes in December or January, of course, is an issue for me, I’d like to see it happen tomorrow. But the reality is that the guys that are here are doing the best job that they can and we’re going to coach them and they’re going to play the best we can with those guys.”